Polymers and plastics are widely used in our society for packaging, coatings and to make lightweight products. In food packaging applications, for example, polymers can be selected to act as barriers to moisture, oxygen and light that can cause the food to degrade. Frequently, multiple layers of plastics are used to provide barriers for several elements simultaneously.
The volume of plastics discarded by consumers is enormous, as can be attested by ever growing landfills. Consequently, different methods have been developed for recycling plastic materials. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,423,878 discloses a reactor with a molten catalyst bed for the pyrolysis of a polymeric material. Catalytic pyrolysis requires an expensive metal catalyst and only about 12 to 15 kilograms of plastic material are recycled per one liter of catalyst in 24 hours. Additional expenses may be incurred if waste plastic materials are to be transported to a particular location for recycling.
It would be beneficial to have an apparatus and methods for processing waste plastics locally and without a catalyst, using compact equipment that can be operated in the same locality where the waste is generated and that could be scaled down to a size suitable to handle the waste from an individual manufacturing plant. The present invention relates to addressing the need for a compact, energy-efficient apparatus for converting plastic materials into fuel and a method that permits to recycle a great variety of plastic materials locally.